Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, October 17, 2000

2000-10-17 04:00:00 PDT Johannesburg -- South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has confounded much of the world by challenging prevailing scientific thinking on AIDS, is stepping out of the messy debate he touched off earlier this year, the government's chief spokesman said yesterday.

For months, Mbeki has publicly questioned the role that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, plays in causing AIDS and speculated about the place that poverty and malnutrition may have in passing on the affliction.

The controversy bubbled up in March when it emerged that Mbeki had begun assembling a scientific advisory panel that would include dissident scientists who argue that AIDS is not caused by HIV.

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He had already entangled himself in another AIDS dispute last October, when he and his health minister disputed the safety and effectiveness of AZT, a standard drug used to block transmission of HIV from mother to child. The health minister later conceded that the drug was safe enough to dispense but said the government could not afford it.

Activists and researchers here and abroad have criticized the president's comments as irresponsible and baffling, particularly since South Africa, with 4.2 million people who are HIV-positive, has more infections than any other country.

Bowing to the realities of a consuming public relations problem, Mbeki has decided to curb his own comments on the cause of AIDS, the government spokesman, Joel Netshitenzhe, said yesterday.

"He has scaled down on his participation in the debate," said Netshitenzhe, who said Mbeki had delegated the question to a committee of ministers.

Without renouncing his ideas or opinions on the subject, Mbeki is thus effectively conceding that the criticism that has dogged him for months has damaged more than his own reputation.

So far Mbeki has not done so. Yet a number of moves this month suggest that the mounting criticism finally forced the government to do something more dramatic.

An ad campaign begun earlier this month emphasizes the government's advocacy of AIDS awareness and prevention.

And a decision to expand research into the effectiveness of Nevirapine in combating mother-to- child transmission has encouraged some advocates who were dismayed by the government's reluctance to provide some anti-AIDS drugs that have shown promising results elsewhere.

Morna Cornell, the director of the AIDS Consortium, an umbrella organization representing more than 350 AIDS groups here, said the shift on Nevirapine was one heartening sign that the inertia to which the president had contributed was finally ending.